Dun Bradstreet Information Services

Dun & Bradstreet Corp. has named William O. Dwyer, president of Moody's Investors Service, to the additional post of president at Dun & Bradstreet Financial Information Services, a new organizational unit.

Companies Paying Bills a Bit Faster: American companies began paying their bills a little faster in the third quarter, a sign that they are having a slightly easier time making ends meet, according to a survey. Dun & Bradstreet Information Services said payment performance was up in the third quarter after having stagnated the previous two quarters. However, companies were still paying their bills slowly, the financial information service said.

A Hong Kong company controlled by China's state-run news service launched an online service for businesses Monday, but will restrict the content and block Chinese computer users from World Wide Web sites. The China Wide Web will be "a highly secure, highly reliable intranet," Ma Yunsheng, chairman of the company, China Internet Corp., said Monday. The venture will be similar to internal networks operated by many large companies around the world.

One of every four American workers is employed by a business owned by a woman, according to a national survey released Tuesday. The National Foundation for Women Business Owners said women own more than a third of all businesses in the nation--7.95 million companies. That figure is up from 4.48 million in 1987, a 78% growth rate that dwarfs the 47% rate of increase for all U.S. firms. As a result, sales at women-owned firms have jumped 236%, to $2.28 trillion from $681 billion in 1987.

When directors of Crosby Valve & Gage in Wrentham, Mass., recently proposed increasing the company's trade with Mexico--both selling more valves and buying castings here for the first time--treasury manager Bruce Carr was worried. Part of his criteria for selecting supplier and manufacturer representatives--each essential to the proposal--are based on credit reports. And getting credit reports out of Mexico took four to six weeks.

Women-owned businesses added to their staffs more than twice as fast as the national average and their financial soundness is equal to businesses nationwide, according to a study released Tuesday. Women-owned businesses have also expanded beyond traditional service and retail sectors and have greater longevity than most U.S. businesses, according to the study by the National Foundation for Women Business Owners. The 15.5 million people working in 7.

Female business owners are just as likely as their male counterparts to pay their bills on time and stay in business--but they say getting banks to recognize this is still their greatest challenge. Of the estimated 7.7 million women-owned businesses in the United States, 85.3% have a low to moderate chance of failing, compared to 86.2% of all firms, according to a report by the National Foundation for Women Business Owners and Dun & Bradstreet Information Services.

South-Central Los Angeles and Koreatown--the areas hardest hit during the spring riots--suffered greater business losses than expected, and revitalizing the areas will be extremely difficult, according to the first survey to measure the riots' impact on commerce.

Don Chin has gone down to the corner of 71st and Main streets only once since the Los Angeles riots. The grocery store and small apartment on his property were reduced to rubble, and he hasn't the heart even to look. "I don't want to see it," the 70-year-old man says.